The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-03

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can we carry 1000 pounds? II we are
discomtited coming into battle with one regi-
ment, brigade viii cut us to pieces. If we
are unfit to cope with one small trial, won't
we be overcome by greater ones? If the foot
men are too much for us, won't the odds be
more fearful against US when we contend
with horses? I thank God that some of His
dear children have been delivered. How was
it that Paul could say: 'Solrowful, yet al
ways rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich;
having nothing, yet possessing all thingsW
And David, the psalmist, scars up into the
rock of Gods strength and becomes thorough
ly composed amid all his SORROWS, saying:
"God is our refuge and strength, a very res
ent help in the time of trouble; therefore will
not we fear though the earth be removed,
though the mountains be cast into the midst
of the sea, though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, though the mountain shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah."
But my text suggests something in advance
of anything have said. We must all quit
this life. However sound our health may be,
it must break down; however good our title
may be to houses, land and estates, we must
surrender them. We will hear a voice bid
ding us away from all these places We will
have to start on pilgrimage from which we
can never come back. We will have
seen for the last time the evening
star, and watched the last summer
cloud, and felt the breath of the
spring wind for the last time. Hands of
loved ones may be stretched out to hold US
back, but they cannot; go we must. About
all other exits and changes we may tri1e. but
not about this Stupendous moment Of life
quitting. Oh, when the great tides of eter-
nifty arise about us and fill the soul and sur
round it and sweep it out toward rapture or
woe, ah! that viii be the Swelling of Jor-
DAMP | know people sometimes talk very
merrily about the departure from this life
l am sorry to hear it. But men do make fun
of the passage from one world to another
Byron jolied great deal about it, but when
it came he shivered with horror. Many an
infidel has scoffed at the idea of fearing fu-
ture world, but lying upon his pillow in the
last hour his teeth have chattered with terror.
l saw in Westminster abbey an epitaph
which a poet ordered to be put upon his
tomb:
Life is jest,
And all things show it,
thought so once,
But now know it.
l thought how inapt that, in place of
sepulchre, men should try their witticisns. A
great German having rejected Christ, in his
last moment said: "Give me light, give me
light" Oh, we may be smart with our witt
cism about the last hour; but when it comes,
and the tides are rising, and the surf is
beating, and the winds are bowling, we will
each one, my brethren, find for himself that
it is ''the swelling of Jordanl' Our natural
courage won't hold out then. However
familiar we may have been with scenes of
mortality, however much we may have
screwed our courage up, we want something
more than natural resources When the
northeast wind blows off from the sea of
death, it will put out all earthly lights.
The lamp of the Gospel, God lighted, is the
only lamp that can stand in that blast. The
weakest arm holding that shall not be con-
founded the strongest one rejecting that
shall stumble and die. When the Jordan
rise3 in its wrath the first dash of its wave
will swamp them forever. We feel how sad
it is for q man to attempt this life without
religion. We see what doleful thing it is
for a man to go down into the misfortunes OF
life without Christian solace; but if that be
so, how much more terrible when that man
comes face to face with the solemnities of the
last hourl Oh, if in the bright sunshine OF
health and prosperity men felt the need oi
something BETTER how win ne feel when the
shadows of the last hour gather above his
pillow? If, in the warmth of worldly pros
perity he was sometimes dismayed, how viii
he feel when the last chill creeps over him
If while things We're comparatively smooth
he was disquieted, what will he do in the
agonies of dissolution? IT, in the land OF
peace in which he trusted, they wearied him
what will he do amid "the swelling OF
JordanP
Oh, rejoice to know that so many oi
| Gods children have gone through that pas:
without shudder. Some one said to dying
! Christian: "Isnt it hard for you to get Out
of this world!7 ooh, no." he says, "it i,
easy dying, it is blessed dying, it is glorious
dying;' and then he pointed TO a clock on The
wall and he said: "The last two hours il
which l have been dying, 1 have had more
| joy than all the years of my life" A genera
came into the hospital after the battle, anC
there were many seriously wounded, ant
there was one man dying, and the genera
said: "Ah, my dear fellow, you seem very
much wounded. I am afraid you are no
going to get we'll" "No," said the
soldier, II am not going to get well, bu
l feel very happy" Oh, I have seen them
and so have you, go out of this life without
tear on their cheek. There was weeping al
round the room, but no weeping in the bed
the cheeks were dry. They were not thrown
| down into darkness, they were lifted up. W.
saw the tides rising around them, and thu
swelling of the wave. 1t washed them of
from the cares and tolls of life; it washed
them on toward the beach of heaven. They
waved to us farewell kiss as they stood OF
deck, and floated down further and further
waited by gales from heaven, until they
were lost to our sight-mortality having be
come Immortality
LIES duty done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies;
While heaven and earth combine to say,
How bcst the righteous when he dies
What high consolation to you that you
departed friends were not submerged in tn
swelling of Jorlanl The Israelites were jus
| as thoroughly alive on the western banks o
the Jordan, as they had been on the eastern
banks of the Jordan; and our departed Chris
tian friends have only crossed over-not sick
not dead, not exhausted, not extinguished
not blotted out, but with healthier respira
ton and stOuter pulses, and keener eyesight
and better prospects, crossed over, their sins
their physical and mental disquiet, all lef
clear this side, and eternally flowing, impas
sable obstacle between them and all huma
shake hands of congratulation with all th
bereaved in the consideration that our de
parted Christian friends are safel
Why was there years ago SO much joy i
certain circles in New York when peopl
heard from their friends who were on boar
the City of Brussels? 1t was thought tina
vessel had gone to the bottom of the sea; an
when the friends on this side heard that th
steamer had arrived safely in Liverpool, he
we not the right to congratulate the people i
New York that their friends had got safel
across? And is it not right this morning tina
congratulate you that your departed friend
are safe on the shores of heavenl Would yo
have them back agains Would you hav
those old parents back again? You knoN
how hard it was sometimes for them to &c
their breath in the sti6ed atmosphere of til
summer. Would you have them back IN tn
summer? Didn't they use their brain !on
Ienaughs sWould you have your chlIdrc